“Treatment with capecitabine and temozolomide (CAPTEM) is an effective therapy for patients with metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs), but the efficacy of several predictive markers previously thought to determine which patients might respond to the regimen could not be validated, according to a presentation at the 2015 NANETS Symposium.

“ ‘In our study we tried to assess the role of potential predictors of response to temozolomide-based regimens in metastatic pNETs,’ according to lead author Mauro Cives, MD, who presented the findings at the 2015 North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society symposium. The markers the investigators evaluated were expression of MGMT, proliferative activity, and ALT activation.

“Investigators looked at 143 patients with metastatic pNETs treated at Moffitt who had undergone therapy with CAPTEM and retrospectively evaluated them for radiographic response. ‘This is the largest reported cohort of pNET patients treated with temozolomide-based chemotherapy,’ said Cives, a research associate in the Department of GI Oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida.”